Gendry was no Knight and Arya was not blushing!
by xxxidrilxxx
Summary: A small scene in the book continued. What happens when Gendry and Arya are counting the tree stumps at High Heart that makes Arya blush... Chapter 2 follows the High Heart scene
1. Chapter 1

They had been riding for days now, asking after Lord Beric. Everyone seemed to think him dead though, and his death changed from place to place. Arya was beginning to think the rumours were true, even when the brotherhood insisted he was alive.

That afternoon, they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world. Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, some so wide that Arya could have used them for a bed. They were all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods.

When Gendry noticed her staring at them, he walked up to her.

"Want to count them?" he asked her.

She nodded and they began to walk around the hill slowly, taking in the night and the view.

"Thirty-one" Gendry said after they'd walked a full circle. He slumped on the grass, leaning his back against one of the stumps. He exhaled sharply a turned up to face the stars on the lilac sky. Arya sat herself besides him.

"Do you think he's really dead? The Lightning Lord?" he spoke up to the sky before turning to Arya.

She shrugged one shoulders. Her moods had somehow dampened, and his creased in query. "What's the matter?" he tossed a small pebble at her face.

Arya rubbed the spot the pebble had hit, sniffing once. "I was just thinking about my father." she admitted, surprising herself at how easy it was to share that with Gendry.

After the amount of time they'd spent together, after everything they'd been through, it had become so easy to trust him. Ever since he found out she was a girl and had kept her secret.

He was the only friend she had left. Now that Hot Pie was gone. Not even Anguy, who was kind to her, did she consider her friend.

No. Gendry _was_ the only friend she had.

"I only met your father that once." Gendry plucked something off the ground. A blade of grass, or a twig. "He seemed to be a good man."

"He was a great man!" Arya said.

Gendry looked up from his hands to meet her eyes.

"The only good man that was left in all of Westeros." she whispered.

Gendry looked down, and began playing with whatever was in his hands. He inhaled, about to say something, but then someone yelled "_Gendry!_" from the other side of the hill. Perhaps Lem, or Harwin, it was difficult to tell from where they sat. The Brotherhood was beginning to make camp for the night and Arya assumed they needed his help with something.

Gendry assumed the same, for when he looked at Arya he rolled his eyes and placed something on her hand before he stood and walked back to the others.

Arya blinked down at her hands in shock. It was a small flower.

They were at winter's door step, yet there was still flowers.

Arya should have flung it at his face, but Gendry was already walking joining the rest of their party. She was glad of that, for she was sure her face had turned scarlet.

With offense, of course, but Gendry would have accused her of blushing and the teasing would never stop.

Arya stood, ready to tear the small flower to pieces, but it was useless. He was no longer there to witness it.

She could go do it in front of him, but then everyone else would see.

Looking down at the small thing, she was reminded of the day at the tourney, when Ser Loras had given Sansa the rose.

Sansa had smiled like an idiot and Arya had rolled her eyes. It was just a stupid flower. _Just like this one_. Well, almost...

This was no rose.

And Gendry was no Knight.

And Arya was definitely not Sansa.

Arya smiled warmly, despite herself.

Perhaps at Gendry's silly gesture, or at the memory of Sansa and Ser Loras. But it was a smile.

"Stupid bull." she muttered under her breath as she tucked the flower carefully inside her shirt as she headed back to join the men.


	2. Chapter 2

High Heart had been one of the best night's sleep Arya had had since she left King's Landing.

Perhaps it was that she'd felt safe, being so high up and surrounded by the tree stumps, lying so close to the twinkling eyes of the night sky that watched over them.

Or perhaps, Tom Sevenstrings had been right, and the magic of the children of the forest really did linger here still.

It almost felt a shame to leave the lofty hill the next morning. But the men insisted on leaving early, claiming it would be a long journey to Acorn Hall.

So far, it'd proven to be.

This was their first stop, and as soon as Arya dismounted her horse and walked him to the shallow edge of the river for a drink, she looked up at the sky; trying to figure out the time of day by the sun, like Maester Luwin had taught her.

It was around midday.

Arya found a mossy root under a tree to sit on while their horses rested, and the men discussed the little old white woman from last night. Arya tilted her head to the side, feeling too much like Nymeria as she tried to point her ear in the direction of the men. She wished she had ears like hers... so she could hear better.

Lem noticed her, and he pulled Harwin and Tom by their sleeves, further away from where Arya sat.

She scrunched her nose. Adults always did that.

_Who cares about that stupid old dwarf lady, any how_, she told herself, shrugging it off and picking up a long twig.

She began swatting the air with it, as if it were Needle.

The balance was all wrong though, and doing so only made her miss Needle, and the comfort it brought her, resting on her side perfectly. So she stopped, letting her hand fall heavily.

_I miss Jon_, she thought with a sigh, and she twisted on the mossy root, so that she was now facing a large, muddy area that had once been a puddle and slid the tip of the twig into the mud, loving the feel of it.

Her hand slowly slid the twig across the mud, almost as if on it's own accord, tearing at the surface of the mud slowly, forming the letter "A".

She'd been so many names over the past few months. Arry, Weasel, Nymeria, Nan...

Only Gendry had known her as Arya up until a few days ago, when they got captured by the Brotherhood, and Harwin had let it slip in front of everyone, even Hot Pie.

She lifted the twig and inspected her "A".

She bit her lip, hoping to ebb the temptation. But it didn't work.

She carved an "R" next to the "A". Then a "Y" and an "A".

"_Is that your name_?"

Arya jumped, swinging the twig against Gendry's leg.

"Don't do that!" she snapped at him.

Gendry shot her one of his cocky smirks, kicking a few rocks aside so he could sit next to her.

He rested his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, inspecting the letters on the mud curiously.

An idea occured to Arya then, and she slid forward on the root, a small smile teasing her lips as she began carving another name above hers.

When she finished, Gendry turned to face her, his eyes bright with amusement.

Her smile turned into a small chuckle.

"That's your name." she said, breaking the twig in half and handing him one of the halves.

He quickly turned to the floor and began to copy his name crudely under Arya's, checking every letter with hers before moving to the next.

He had a bit of trouble with the "R". . . but for his first time, he'd done it well.

"We share two letters." he pointed out, poking his twig under the "R" and the "Y" of his own name.

"Yes." she acknowledged. "They make the _ree_ sound.

Gend-_ree_.

A-_ree-_a.

Can you hear it?"

He nodded, leaning forward to write Arya's name.

When he was done, he turned to her with a smile. She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too.

This was the first time she'd seen Gendry for what he really was. . . Just a boy. A 15 year old boy.

His brows were furrowed and his lips slightly pouted in concentration as he wrote his name a second time, and Arya caught herself staring at his face too long, so she turned glad he hadn't noticed, and began carving another name.

"What's that?" he asked after he'd carved his name a third time and turned to look at what she'd written next to her name.

"Stark." she said proudly, trying to suck as much strength out of the word as she could. She needed strength. The strength of her name, and her family...

Her head snapped to him suddenly, and she cocked it to one side. "What's your surname?"

"Waters."

Arya dropped her twig, nudging the hand Gendry was holding his twig with towards the mud.

"Alright, You do this one. On your own. I'll tell you what to do. Start by making an upside down mountain with two peaks... Yes. Like that. Now an "A" ... that's the first and last letter on my name."

"And the third on _Stark._" he said as he carved the "A".

Arya bit her lip to keep herself from smiling. "Yes. And the third on Stark. Now do a "T" ... like this one here." she pointed at the "T" in Stark.

"Now "E" ... the..."

"I know," he cut her off with a smile. "It's the one in my name."

She couldn't hold the smile back this time. She nodded, and his smile turned into a grin.

"Now "R"... you know which one that is?"

"R" he said, screwing his face in thought. "R... R...R... Arya! That one." he poked his twig under the "R" of her name.

"Yes."

She was quite surprised. Maybe this wasn't his first lesson, and he was just pretending for her sake... the way her father pretended Bran could beat him in chess...

"Now "S" ... like a snake, or the way a river bends." she told him, warily inspecting his face.

He tried, but it looked more like a "J"

She laughed, "No... it's more like this." she said, reaching over to grab his hand and guiding it across the mud, carving an "S".

His hand was warm, and not as calloused as she expected.

This was the first time she had ever touched him. Like this, anyway.

There had been pushes and shoves, and an occasional hand to help her up, hold her back, or wake her up... but never like this... skin to skin.

She released him shyly, feeling her face and neck grow warm.

She could still feel his hand, in hers... it was an odd, lingering feeling.

"You did it," she said, not turning to him, grateful he was staring at his work and not her face. "That was good."

He chuckled.

"You've done this before." it wasn't a question.

He turned to look at her now, his brow cocked up in that way it always was when he was puzzled or dubious. "No. What makes you say that?"

She shook her head with a shrug, picking up her half of the twig.

"Is it because I was so good?"

Arya didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling. She could hear it on his voice.

"Don't be stupid." she said, elbowing him.

"I was, wasn't I?" he was definitely smilling.

Arya met his eyes, ready to deny it.

They were really blue. And really bright. And not at all cocky... more like hopeful... as though he were searching for her approval, rather than her compliment.

And so, she felt a wave a shock when she realized she couldn't lie.

"Yes." she said, almost shyly.

She cleared her throat quickly, and turned to face the mud. "You were."

Gendry let out a long sigh besides her. "Thank you... m'lady."

"I told you to stop that." she whispered stiffly as she began to write Nymeria's name on the mud.

But he'd sounded so genuinely grateful, and, "m'lady" had sounded so sad, and almost hesitant, that she was certain he hadn't said it teasingly.

"Arya?" he said after a while.

"yes?"

"How do you write _friend_?"

Her twig froze mid letter. She turned to him, their eyes locking for a long moment. He smiled, very tenderly, and a wave of emotions made Arya hold back from shivering.

She parted her lips, about to say something, when from their right, came a voice.

"_What are you two doing_?"

They both turned. It was Lem.

"I'm teaching Gendry how to write." she answered rudely before Gendry could, hoping her tone warned Lem off.

"You want to learn how to write?" he asked Gendry with a laugh. "For what? Writing's useless! How does it put a meal on a table, or shield one from a sword? What use will it be to a bastard like you!" he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Leave it for the highborn, and stick to what you know . . . unless . . . you're trying to impress someone?" he glanced at Arya meaningfully, but before Arya could yell at him, Gendry rose from the floor, fuming, and began to walk away with heavy footsteps.

Arya grabbed a handful of mud without thinking twice and threw it on Lem's face.

"You're an idiot! " she jumped to her feet, tossed her twig aside, and ran after Gendry.

He hadn't gone far... but by the time she reached him, so had the men with the horses.

Gendry was already mounting his horse, and Anguy's horse came between them.

Anguy was holding her horse by the reins.

Arya snatched them from his grip, and began to mount the horse.

"Alright, lets go" Harwin said, kicking his horse forward as soon as Arya was on the horse.

Gendry was quiet the rest of the ride to Acorn Hall, and even though Arya rode next to him, she couldn't really tell him everything she wanted to. Not with Anguy riding so close to her and telling her tales.

_It's probably for the best_, she thought... Gendry was so stubborn, he would probably ignore anything she'd try an tell him.

**AN**

**song for this chapter "Angels" by the Xx**

******I really hope you guys picked up on the "m'lady" bit. Gendry was having such a nice time with Arya, he almost got lost in the moment... so he said it to remind himself that she was still a highborn. **

**Ok, so, I think these will just be, like, random moments between Gendry and Arya...**

**nothing too special... but i personally really like this one. **

**The flower on was sweet too... very cute of Gendry to give her it... but this is something that came from Arya, and I just got all sort of warm fuzzy feels writing it...**

**Please comment, and tell me what you think! **


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